Biography

Biography

Karen Hansen has been painting full time since 2001. With a life-long passion for art, she graduated from Augsburg College in Minneapolis earning a degree in Fine Art. Following that was a 22 year career in the field of animation. The film making took her to studios all over the world in a fascinating and challenging industry but she was always determined to paint full time.

Hansen's paintings have been exhibited widely in both group and solo shows. Her work can be found in public, corporate, private and museum collections around the world. She has received numerous awards and commissions. In a Minnesota “Art for Architecture” competition she submitted a drawing for a manhole cover design reflecting life in Minneapolis. Her award winning image was cast in brass and is installed in the sidewalk in Downtown Minneapolis. In 2006 she was published in the book, Best of California Artists and Artisans and was awarded second place in the Acrylic Painting category. In 2012 she was invited to be included in the book, Best Of Presents America Acrylic Artists Volume I, as well as Sue St. John’s ebook, A Walk Into Abstracts...How Did They Do That? In 2013 she spent three weeks as an Artist in Residence at the Mark Rothko Centre Museum in Daugavpils, Latvia (Rothko’s birthplace). Her work is now in the museum’s permanent collection. In 2015 she spent 16 days as an Artist in Residence in Civitella d’Agliano, Italy, organized through Academia Luciana.

Hansen is a native of Chicago. In 1985. After many brutal winters in the Midwest, she came to the Los Angeles area and fell in love with sun-drenched Southern California. She now lives in Burbank with her husband and her cat.

She is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) / Gallery 825, Women Painters West, Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art (SCWCA) and a signature member of International Society of Acrylic Painters (ISAP).

Artist Statement

My paintings are lyrical, atmospheric abstractions of meditation and memory. They explore those moments when we release our tensions and ease into clear, quiet spaces in our minds. They are meant as resting places, uncluttered and serene oases from our hectic, complex, fragmented world. As offerings of the rhythms and mysteries of our lives, they are portals to peace and deeper connections within our human experience, those places beyond words. These paintings, with their subtle complexity, are layered translucently in search of radiance, nuance, depth and elegance. They evolve through a process of improvisation, experimentation, revision and intuition.

I consider my artistic roots to be the Color Field movement. Notable artists within that movement are Mark Rothko, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski and Richard Diebenkorn.

We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.